frogs

I know I haven’t posted one of these in a while. Blame the holidays and the deluge of games that I’ve been swimming in. Between Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood and Epic Mickey, it can be overwhelming. But I’ve managed to find one Time Waster that acts almost like a counterpoint to the big-budget releases this time of year. For the past week, I’ve been sneaking in games of Zuma Blitz on Facebook.

Although Zynga’s games are getting most of the hype, I actually prefer PopCap Games’ quick-twitch puzzle title. It works like the original except that it’s timed for one minute. Players have to shoot colored balls out of a frog’s mouth and match them to a train of similarly colored spheres creeping across the screen. Once the ball hits the train and if it matches the color of at least two touching balls, they disappear. The object of the game is to get the highest score and making enough balls disappear so that they don’t spill over into a hole. If the train reaches that point, it’s game over.

Like any Facebook game nowadays, there is a leveling system and a payment scheme. PopCap’s model revolves around Mojo, which is used to activate powers such as Last Hurrah, Speed and Bombs. Players absolutely need these abilities to rack up those high scores. PopCap is betting that gamers’ competitiveness will egg them on to spend money to instantly buy Mojo rather than take the time to build it up via regular playing. From the few hours I played, it’s a good balance that urges players to spend money but it doesn’t discourage them from playing Zuma Blitz.

Play Time: This can vary depending on your Zuma expertise and your motivation for being atop your Facebook leaderboard. The game has a built in limiter. Gamers actually need hearts to play and these hearts refill over time. I advise that you don’t reset the game after making a few mistakes because you don’t get Mojo credit or experience points. Both are vital if you want to keep playing at a high level.

If you can’t get onto Zuma Blitz beta here, I do have four invites to the beta if you want to try it out. Just friend me on Facebook and type in the word Zuma in the message field, and I’ll try to invite you.